The Minister for Justice has outlined plans to establish a new statutory agency on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
Helen McEntee also said that the creation of 72 new family refuge spaces and ten replacement places in ten locations across the country will be prioritised.
It follows the publication of a review of accommodation for victims of domestic abuse carried out by the Child and Family Agency Tusla.
The areas are: Sligo (eight family places), Cavan/Monaghan (eight family places), Cork city (12 family places – six new, six replacement), North Cork (five family places), west Cork (five family places), Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown (ten family places), Westmeath (eight family places – four new, four replacements), Portlaoise (eight family places), Balbriggan (ten family places), and Longford (eight family places).
The department has said that the locations and refuge places that were selected by Tusla, were chosen on the basis of required proximity to a refuge, as well as a need for refuge spaces per population in densely populated areas.
In addition to these, the Department of Justice said that work would begin to source refuge provision in a number of counties that currently have none: Offaly, Carlow, Roscommon, Leitrim and Cavan/Monaghan.
Ms McEntee has said that she will outline the timeline for the roll out of these additional places in the new national strategy, which is now due to be published in April.
She told RTÉ's News at One she "absolutely accepts" that it is not good enough that so many people are being turned away from services, but it is not as simple as saying they will be able to identify ten houses in each of the ten areas and be able to move women into them in the next few months.
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The minister said they have to also provide wrap-around support and services, and that is what they are working towards now.
She said it has taken over two years to do this accommodation review, and what started off focusing solely on Dublin has now expanded to the entire country.
"Domestic violence has been around forever, it's been treated as a lesser form of crime," she said.
"But it's only now, unfortunately, that we are really coming to terms with how we can deal with it, particularly in relation to the structures."
'Work to do'
Minister McEntee said there will be extra places by the end of this year, but could not say how many, adding that there is still work to do and the accommodation review has only been published today.
She said they are developing a committee to look at how they can speed up the process as it currently exists.
"It's too slow. If you want to set up a new refuge at the moment you have to go through a process that takes years in some instances," she said.
"We're putting in place a structure that will look at how we can improve that," she added.
In 2019, the Government ratified the Istanbul Convention, and committed to providing one refuge place for every 10,000 adults living in Ireland. According to Minister McEntee, that equates to 476 spaces.
According to the Department of Justice, at the end of 2021 there were 137 refuge units and 18 safe houses.
Ms McEntee said that Tusla had identified "short, medium and long term objectives" in terms of improving the provision of refuge accommodation.
The minister said that the roll out of the more than 80 new and replacement places was the short-term objective.
The medium term objective was "to ensure that 70% of our population are within 30 minutes of a refuge," and the longer term objective of meeting the Istanbul target of 476, although she said that figure may change.
Timelines for these objectives are also due to be set out in April.
Following a recent audit, the Department of Justice is taking over responsibility for service delivery, in addition to its policy responsibility in the area of domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
Today the Minister for Justice met those working in the sector to discuss the proposed third national strategy. A wider public consultation will begin tomorrow.
Ms McEntee also outlined proposals in the strategy to establishment of a new statutory agency on domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
This was also among the recommendations in the Tusla accommodation review report. The proposed agency will require legislation, staffing and funding.
It will answer to the Minister for Justice, will report to a dedicated Cabinet sub-committee and will co-ordinate "the actions of the third national strategy across government."
The proposed agency would be responsible for the delivery of services, ensuring standards, leading awareness campaigns and leading research.
Until the new agency is established, Tusla will report to the Minister for Justice for service provision for domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
Broad welcome for strategy
Mary McDermott, CEO of Safe Ireland, welcomed the publication of the review, which she described as "a robust piece of research that will be around for a long time".
Ms McDermott called for the promised refuge accommodation to be "well designed and well planned."
She said that emergency refuge accommodation was one element of what was needed, but said what Safe Ireland welcomed "above all" was the minister's commitment to "a fully functional infrastructure from a national high-level Government and policy response, right down to a community level response".
Director of the National Women's Council Orla O'Connor called the draft national strategy "far-reaching" and "ambitious" and welcomed the minister's decision to "allow the public to have their say" via the public consultation.
Ms O'Connor also welcomed that "accountability and responsibility for ending violence against women" would fall to one Government department and one minister.
However Ms O'Connor said that "the framework that is being suggested in terms of the (statutory) agency ... needs a bit more exploration and a bit more detail".
